The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities’ Center for Engagement and Neighborhood Building is designed to virtually unite stakeholders of all types in studying and promoting the efficacy of settlement house movement values. This movement's values recognize that all individuals, families, and communities, no matter how challenged, possess aspirations and strengths that can be the foundation for meaningful, lasting change.

The practice of authentically engaging individuals in identifying their own strengths, aspirations, and solutions was used by the first settlement workers and it holds true today. It is evident that building on individual and community assets and engaging neighbors and constituents as decision makers creates more lasting and effective change than a model where outside “experts” conceive and impose solutions. Authentic engagement and person-centered and strength-based orientations have demonstrated efficacy when adopted by organizations that work to build stronger communities.